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Golden rod is a major honey plant here in the north east. I let the bees keep most of it for winter stores. They do well with it and sometimes the flow is so strong that they will draw out comb and also lay up 40-50 lbs of honey from it. It lasts from end of July till first frost. Most of the time it gets mixed in with aster honey. This is another major honey plant in my area. I hope I answered your question.
Dan

holy cow! this is great! i was afraid i might start having to feed my bees soon but based on all your guys/gals feed back i think the bees will be in good shape. thank you all for your answers, i am very happy now.

generally speaking the goldenrod wont start for you for about 2-3 more weeks. its been in blossom for about 15 days already but they wont head to it til it gets some nectar.
if you need to feed i wouldnt wait til then. its by no means a sure thing as it is out east. its a hit a miss flow for us. last year there wasnt any to speak of.

wineman, where in michigan are you? in southwest michigan the goldenrod's been blooming for about a week or 10 days now. the spotted knap weed is on it's way out but i'm thinking that with the goldenrod going good now there's been a good transition period from knapweed to goldenrod.

Sarah I am surprised your goldenrod is blooming, must be a different kind. I am 20 miles north of Mitch and while I have lots of goldenrod budding so far no blossoms. Looks like at least another week before we get flower here. Mitch the buckwheat started to bloom a week ago but didn't see a single bee on it until yesterday. Awfully cool now, maybe it will shut us off early?
david

yep its one of the goldenrods. you cant mistake it....only thing thats got such a color. i recall reading that there are hundreds of varities and michigan has something like 10. maybe those numbers arent just right but its a bunch.

there sometimes is a transition into the goldenrod but not always. the sweet clover and star thistle are essentially dead in the southern part of the state now but they switch to alfalfa and button bush along with the minors such as joe pye before the goldenrod hits. look for them to start working the goldenrod at the very end of this month. usually there isnt any in the supers until the first week of september. you wont miss the smell if there is even a small flow.

remind me and ill tell you when i see the first nectar from it in that part of the state.

My golden rod has been blooming for about a week now. The bees are going nuts in my area. The sky is full of the little ladies and they are making a 'bee line' to the plants. The fields are all yellow now.
Dan

The Golden rod is just starting to open.I am not sure what the name of it is.there are seveal kinds her from shor to tall but just the one kind is just startin. with the cold temps for this time of year i am sure it will be a week or better befor any nector flows from it.Dave i think it will be the same for your buck wheat.To cold but when it warms back up i think they will be workin it hard.
Bob

Sarah,
I'm just north of Grand Rapids.As of yet I haven't seen any goldenrod in bloom. You should find Knapweed,Chickory,Joepye weed all in bloom now.Goldenrod should start soon and will be a big flow for you. The last flower out will be the little blue aster.I always thought that the fall flowers offered just as much if not more in nectar than the spring flowers. We just came off the yellow and white sweet clover bloom which should of given you a shot in the arm. Check out the median along the expressway, that'll often give you a clue as to what's in bloom at any given time. Be careful though on how long you leave your honey supers on. Before you know it, Sept. will be on us and with that the cool nights and days which make for very sluggish honey. It can make for interesting moments in extracting.